I need to explain a very enigmatic scripture to you that happened on the great Day of Atonement in the Old Testament and which actually never gets preached on....the goat for Azazel. It is critical to understanding the mission of the Church to judge and execute fallen angels who plague nations and peoples.

There has risen a huge genre in the Christian book and video ministries on demons. the occult, conspiracies etc. It sells books and it attracts viewers to TV. But the problem of course is that the current narrative from all of these pulpits is to show how powerful these demonic entities are and how they have taken over the world and therefore how close we are to Jesus coming to take us out of here to protect us from these powerful forces.

The real gospel of the Kingdom proclaims the power of Christ through His Church to rid planet earth of these malevolent forces, cleanse the earth, heal the nations and let the glory of God fill the earth.

When I write in my blogs about these beings and how to recognize their "gates" or their entry points into human affairs it is to apprise you of their activities so that you and your fellow believers in a city or area can bind these forces, cast out their influence and power centres and bring them into judgment. That is essential to the real preaching of the gospel of the Kingdom. There can be no real revival in a region until "the strongman of the city" be bound and cast out. That is why Jesus said "If I cast out demons then know that the Kingdom of God has come". (Math. 12:28)

Which brings me to a goat for Azazel.....

One of the great discoveries in the last century healing revivals was the realization that the ministry of healing was part of the atonement as in "by His stripes we are healed..." and that led to all sorts of added benefits of the atonement beyond just the payment for our sins....healing, prosperity, access to heaven etc.

But nobody that I know of has ever preached about the other goat on the Day of Atonement....the goat for Azazel. At least not in any of the sermons I have heard for decades. We all hear about the goat that had sins placed on him and sacrificed for the sins of the people....and we understand how Christ became our sacrifice for our sins on the cross. But what about the second goat....the one sent into the wilderness for Azazel?

This is what Lev. 16: 7-10 says.....

"And Aaron shall take two goats and set them before the Lord at the door of the tent of the meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats. One lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and offer it as a sin offering; but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel."

Now in your Bible where you read Azazel there stands "scapegoat" because they did not really know what to do with this word and the nearest Hebrew word "ez" meant "goat" and "azal" meant "turn off". But that is not what the Hebrew actually says. It says "azaz" which means "strong" and "el" which means "mighty" and is in actual fact a proper name of a person. But who was that person?

Then in 1821 the ancient book of Enoch was found in Ethiopia and translated into English and low and behold the mystery of who Azazel was became clear....by the way sections of the book of Enovh were found in the Dead Sea scrolls and it was well known that in the time of Jesus and the Apostles this book was well known and read and even Jude, the brother of Jesus, quotes from it in his epistle so I am going to take the same liberty and quote from it to enlighten us as to what is happening in Leviticus 16....

Enoch 8:1...."And Azazel taught men to make swords and knives and shields and ....bracelets and ornaments ad the beautifying of the eyelids...and all kinds of costly stones...and there arose much godlessness and they committed fornication and they were led astray and became corrupt in all their ways..."

Enoch 10: 4-10..."And the Lord said to Raphael Bind Azazel hand and foot and cast him into the darkness and make an opening in the desert and cast him therein.....the whole earth has been corrupted through the works taught by Azazel: to him ascribe all sin..."

Enoch 54:4-6 "And I asked the angel of peace who went with me, For who are these chains being prepared? And he told me: These are being prepared for the hosts of Azazel so that they may take them and cast them into the Abyss...and on that great day they shall be cast into the great burning furnace that Lord of Spirits may take vengeance on them for their unrighteousness in becoming subject to Satan and leading stray those who dwell on the earth."

Now what we understand from the Book of Enoch is that it has long descriptions about the fallen angels who were cast out of heaven and onto the earth and who co-habited with women to give birth to the 'Nephilim, the giants talked about in scripture that inhabited the land of Canaan.

These same fallen angels of Genesis 6 are described in Enoch but given personal names. The chief leader among them the book of Enoch describes him as Azazel. In our Bible and in our tradition we are more familiar with the name "Lucifer" which is actually a translation mistake because there is no proper name "Lucifer" in the Hebrew. That comes form the Latin Vulgate as a Latin word for the Hebrew word 'helel", the bright and shining one....which in Latin was "luciferos".

So we have two goats on the Day of Ateonement.....
- one was slain for the sins of the people
- the other was sent into the wilderness for Azazel

We know that Jesus was our sacrifice for sins slain on the cross. Hebrews 9:11..."But Christ came as High Priest of teh good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood he entered the most Holy Place once and for all having obtained eternal redemption."

This is the work of Christ on the cross that we all understand and we all preach.
But what of the fulfilment of the other goat...the one sent into the wilderness for Azazel?

This is the other great work of Christ that we are invited to participate in. Luke 4:1...

'And Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness."

.....where He went to do battle with Azazel!

We know the story. Jesus fasted for 40 days and then Satan (Azazel) came to tempt him. We get the impression that Satan was on the attack and Jesus was on the defence. Purposely weakened by 40 days of fasting at His lowest to be tempted....nothing could be further from the truth.

Here is my interpretation....

In Mathew 17:21 the disciples were dismayed that they were confronted with a demonic possession that they could not handle. Jesus told them that there are certain powerful forces of the enemy that "This kind does not come out but by prayer and fasting"

Prayer and fasting strengthens the spirit...it opens us up to the flow of the power of God. It concentrates our mind and hearts on the things of the Spirit and not the things of the world.

When Jesus being already full of the Holy Spirit from His baptism in the Jordan then went into the wilderness for 40 days of prayer and fasting, He was concentrating Himself for a mighty spiritual battle. There in the wilderness is where Azazel had been cast out to the earth according to the book of Enoch. There Jesus went in fulfilment of the two goat prophecy ....one goat for the Lord to be slain for the sins of the world...the other goat to go into the wilderness to meet Azazel.

And into the wilderness Jesus went and after 40 days. He was not weak from fasting...He was spiritually powerful. There took place an almighty spiritual battle, a battle that only He could accomplish for us. He defeated Satan, Azazel, himself and bound him and cast him into the Abyss.

Jesus said if you bind the strong man of the city you can spoil him of his goods. Well Jesus bound the strong man of planet earth and then He went about spoiling him of his goods. He started casting out demons all over the place, He then gave His disciples the same authority that He has because He already won the battle over the head demon.

Acts 10:38..."God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power and who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil for God was with Him."

So this is the lesson today....

If you want to preach the whole message of the Day of Atonement and what happened on that day then you cannot just preach about the goat that was slain for our sins. That is a wonderful message.

You need to also understand the work of the other goat....the confrontation and defeat of Azazel in the wilderness and what that means for us as a Church.

For me it means that all this talk about the devil taking over the world and we the Church being taken out of here is not the message of the gospel of the Kingdom. It is lies and false propaganda by the enemy so that we do not realize the power and authority we have to cleanse our land from evil spirits and bring them into judgement.

Jesus said "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33) and John the disciple who heard and recorded these words wrote in his epistle...
"You are of God little children and overcome them; because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world." (1 John 3:3)

So as we progress in this series of blogs about the "High Places" of the earth where satanic and demonic forces are located, when we learn how to recognize their signs and how they operated....this series is not about titilating you with secret occult discoveries or fascinating new bits of knowledge....it is about exposing the work of the enemy so that we can bind his forces and cast them into the Abyss for judgement and destruction....and liberate planet earth.

And you and I have been filled with the Spirit of God just as Jesus was to go into the wilderness places of this earth and there destroy the works of darkness and healing all those oppressed of the devil.

Addendum:
I can really recommend to you to watch the following YouTube:
"Henry Gruver: Fallen Angels Chained beneath the Streets of Rome"

It is the testimony of the Assemblies of God missionary Henry Gruver how the Lord miraculously took him and his prayer warriors to an underground site in the city of Rome to confront and bind two huge mighty fallen winged seraphim angels with chains and cast them into the Abyss. Incredible things are happening all over the earth!